Ruine Kronast

Today's ruin was never a castle, but a tower with a floor area of twelve by twelve metres and probably two storeys. The special thing about Kronast is that it gives us a very good idea of a permanent house, as was customary for the nobility in the Middle Ages. The small castle probably served as a summer residence or hunting lodge.

In the holes in the wall between the two storeys, there are still charred remains of beams from the intermediate floor. These and the red-coloured stones inside indicate destruction by fire. There are two embrasures on the north and south walls. The west and south walls each have a 50 cm high Gothic window. Below the window in the west wall is a large hole, which was later broken out. The entrance must have been in the east wall, which is now missing.

The first documented mention of the building was in 1334, when Friedrich Schrautolf, the district judge of Machland in Freistadt, received permission from the sovereign to construct a building on this site. At that time, the land belonged to St Florian's Abbey. He called the tower Chrannest. In 1377, Hans Lasperger bought the estate.

Then the Hussites marched across our land, plundering and devastating entire regions. Between 1425 and 1436, Neumarkt also suffered under the Hussite Wars. "Nicht hussen!" is a dialect expression used when someone incites people. This expression goes back to the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus, who did not recognise the infallibility of the Pope. When Jan Hus was executed in 1415, this caused a storm of indignation not only in Bohemia. The Hussite movement formed and marauded through the countryside. On the hunt for booty, the Hussites also invaded Neumarkt, the castle near Möstling and the country estate in Kronast were apparently destroyed.

In the course of time, the name Kronest (today Kronast) passed on to the neighbouring houses. In 1443 there is mention of a tailor, in 1455 of a Piberhofer, of Eyschiel and half a farmstead in Kronest.

In 1455 Caspar von Alharting owned Kronast, in 1508 it became a sovereign fief. In 1527, Veit von Zelking sold half of the "castle" to the Piberhof and in the same year to Countess Thürheim of Weinberg Castle.

In 1602, the Eischielgut beym eden Stöckhl is mentioned in the parish of Neumarkt. According to this, the building was already uninhabited and left to decay. It was probably burnt down again in the second half of the 16th century and was never rebuilt.

According to: Edelbauer, Gottfried: Rund um Neumarkt. Hiking history in the surroundings of Neumarkt i. M. Compiled by Gottfried Edelbauer using the Neumarkt local history book by Hermann Affenzeller. With a hiking map in the appendix. 1994.